Swiss film archive

Headquarters of the Cinémathèque in the Casino Montbenon in Lausanne

New building for the film archive in Penthaz

The Swiss Film Archive , also known throughout Switzerland as Cinémathèque suisse , is a private, non-profit foundation based in Lausanne . It collects, conserves, restores and reveals Switzerland's film heritage (film, image and print media archive).

history

The Cinémathèque suisse has its origins in the Swiss Film Archive , which was founded in Basel on October 1, 1943, and was founded in Lausanne on November 3, 1948. In May 1949 the holdings of the Swiss Film Archive were transported from Basel to Lausanne in two trucks. In 1950 the film archive received an initial subsidy from the city of Lausanne, which also made space available for depositing the films. However, there was no support from the cultural circles, the canton of Vaud did not want to have anything to do with this institution at the time and the Swiss Confederation lacked the legal basis for engagement. The debts assumed threatening proportions.

In 1951 the journalist and art critic Freddy Buache joined the founding group and on September 18, 1981 the association was converted into a foundation.

The goals of this foundation are:

Record and receive documents from the fields of film art and technology , regardless of their origin;

expand, conserve , restore and present the institute's own holdings ;

to found a state museum and to set up a research center for film art and technology;

serve the common good and do not pursue any profit goals.

Since August 1, 2002, Art. 5 let. c of the Swiss Film Act of December 14, 2001 states that the federal government can finance the archiving and restoration of films or support them in some other way. Since then, two thirds of the foundation has been subsidized by the federal government, the canton of Vaud and the city of Lausanne .

In 2019 the collection consisted of 80,000 film titles or 600,000 film reels, 2.8 million photographs, one million posters, 26,000 books, 720,000 magazines, 10,000 scripts, over 120 bequests and collections, 240,000 dossiers, 1,500 film apparatuses and one large one Number of slides, image carriers such as glass plates and ektachrome and, to a lesser extent, original celluloids, cartoon characters, backdrops, festival cups and graphic works.